Overview of The Bible Sabbath

Gen. 2:1-3.
Ex. 20:8-11.
Luke 4:16.
Isa. 56:5, 6.
Isa. 58:13, 14.
Matt. 12:1-12.
Ex. 31:13-17.
Eze. 20:12, 20.
Deut. 5:12-15.
Heb. 4:1-11.
Lev. 23:32.
Mark 1:32.

19. The Sabbath

The beneficent Creator, after the six days of Creation, rested on the seventh day and instituted the Sabbath for all people as a memorial of Creation. The fourth commandment of God's unchangeable law requires the observance of this seventh-day Sabbath as the day of rest, worship, and ministry in harmony with the teaching and practice of Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is a day of delightful communion with God and one another. It is a symbol of our redemption in Christ, a sign of our sanctification, a token of our allegiance, and a foretaste of our eternal future in God's kingdom. The Sabbath is God's perpetual sign of His eternal covenant between Him and His people. Joyful observance of this holy time from evening to evening, sunset to sunset, is a celebration of God's creative and redemptive acts.

For more information about when the Bible Sabbath begins each week and for an online Sabbath Calculator, please see our web page here.

Here is an interesting question that arrived with the happy99 virus.

Sirs:
I have relatives in Ancorage AK. and the sun does not give the same amount of time there from sunset to sunrise as it does here what is the proper time to start resting in the winter up there in the summer and also in the winter ? Im sure it would not be proper to rest only from sunset to sunset up there. I would sincerely like to know I am not trying to be a crack pot. E.G.

Reply: Dear Brother or Sister E.G,
Thank you for visiting http://www.tagnet.org/macedonia and for sharing your question about observing the Sabbath in Anchorage.You open up an important issue, which I happened to read about several years ago in a book by Samule Bacchiocchi. I'm not sure of the title (or the spelling of his name, for that matter), but I think it is From Sabbath To Sunday. The author obviously spent a lot of time thinking about the subject and I think I have to agree with his conclusion, so I'll share it here. In extreme northern or southern latitudes the sun sometimes does not set or rise for days at a time. I am told that even during the middle of winter there is a false sunrise, where the sky brightens briefly at high noon, then gets dark again. The author suggested this would be the appropriate start of the next day. I can't say for sure, but it makes sense to me. In the middle of the summer, if the sun does not set, the Sabbath would start late Friday evening when the sun reaches its lowest point and begins to rise again. Anyway you look at it, the day is still 24 hours long plus or minus a few seconds. I hope this has been helpful. 01/30/2000

(E.G.was informed about their virus, but chose not to reply. Is it possible someone would actually take the time to write a question, just so they could send a virus? I've heard of someone catching one maliciously planted in a Christian shareware site.)

Macedonia Seventh-day Adventist Church 1917 W. 6th St., Chester, PA U.S.A.

Macedonia
***Seventh-day Adventist Church***
1917 W. 6th St., Chester, PA U.S.A.